South Korea's Moon Replaces Minister in Charge of Relations with DPRK

The President of South Korea Moon Jae-in announced that he had replaced the country's unification minister, who is responsible for affairs with North Korea.

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in's office said on Thursday that the head of the state replaced his unification minister, Cho Myoung-gyon appointing a longtime confidant, a scholar who has headed the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification since last April.

The announcement comes soon after the second Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi, which finished abruptly without any deal or declaration due to the parties' failure to agree on the scale of North Korea’s denuclearization and US-led sanctions relief.

READ MORE: US State Department Does Not Rule Out New Sanctions on North Korea

Recently, several US think tanks and South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that satellite pictures showed works were underway to restore the Sohae Satellite Launching Station at Tongchang-ri, which North Korea pledged to dismantle earlier.